BUSINESS
His father was pursuing a doctoral degree, and Mohan spent most of his formative years in the US.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan recently revealed that back in 2011, Google reportedly offered him $100 million (Rs 855 crore) stock to prevent him from joining Twitter as Chief Product Officer. He appeared on Nikhil Kamath's podcast People by WTF, where he mentioned that the offer was part of Google's efforts to retain him. At the time, David Rosenblatt, Mohan's former supervisor, had joined Twitter's board and was keen to bring Mohan on board.
Mohan also shared stories about his childhood, growing up in Lucknow and later moving to the United States with his family. His father was pursuing a doctoral degree, and Mohan spent most of his formative years in the US. However, in 1986, the family returned to India, and Mohan attended St. Francis' College in Lucknow for five years before heading back to the US to study electrical engineering at Stanford University. He talked about how it was difficult for him to adapt to the new environment when he returned to India in Class 7, particularly because of the language barrier.
Even as a teenager, Mohan was always interested in technology. “My background is I am a technologist by training. I’ve been interested in – let’s say, passionate about – technology since I was a really young kid,” he told Kamath. He added, “I went to high school in Lucknow. I had a little software startup back in the day, building software for other high school kids and teachers, and so I’ve always had a deep and abiding interest in technology.”